1. Field of the invention
The invention relates to a method for influencing and/or controlling the trajectory of one or more charged particle beamlets in a charged particle multi-beamlet apparatus.
The invention more specifically relates to a charged particle multi-beamlet apparatus using a plurality of charged particle beamlets, said apparatus comprises a manipulator device for manipulation of one or more charged particle beams of the plurality of charged particle beamlets. For example, multi electron beam systems are being developed for high throughput maskless lithography systems, multi electron beam microscopy and multi electron beam induced deposition devices.
The invention further relates to a maskless charged particle multi-beamlet lithography system, a charged particle multi-beamlet microscopy system, a charged particle multi-beamlet beam induced deposition device, and a manipulator device for use in a charged particle multi-beamlet apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
A charged particle multi-beamlet lithography system for exposing a target using a plurality of beamlets is disclosed for example in WO 2009/127659 A2. The lithography device comprises a deflection device comprising a plurality of deflectors, wherein the deflection device comprises a plurality of memory cells, each cell being provided with a storage element and being connected to a deflector. The storage element is effectively used as a control signal of a locally available amplifier, which provides a substantially digital signal to the deflectors. In other words, the deflector is either on or off. This is a very important step for obtaining a high accuracy of the patterning step of the lithography system, and a high wafer throughput.